The Greatest Iris Message of Their Lives
by StellaHunterOfArtemis
Summary: One-Shot. The Iris Message Percy attempts in Son of Neptune does go through to Annabeth. What happens? How does everyone react? How does it end? Read on to find out.


**I would like to apologize **_**big time**_** to all of you. Mein itni **_**busy **_**thi - um, sorry, I slipped into Hindi for a moment. I meant to say, I have been so busy! I know I should be updating the rest of my stories, and I promise you that **_**Past, Here We Come!**_** will be out by tomorrow. At any rate, this is a one-shot that I wrote today. A what-if story. What if the IM **_**had**_** gone through to Annabeth?**

_**Third Person's POV**_

Percy took a deep breath and gazed intensely into the rainbow before him. He screwed up his eyes for a moment, thinking about the only person he remembered, and whispered words which flew out of his mouth like he'd practiced saying them.

'O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me Annabeth Chase.'

Fleecy groaned. 'I told you to say "Fleecy, do me a" – oh, forget it.'

She shook her head in exasperation and just concentrated on the message.

A minute later, she was still trying.

'I – can't – do – it!' she said, going out of breath. 'It feels… it's like you're dialing somebody, but you've forgotten the number. _Or_ someone is jamming the signal. Sorry, dear. I just can't connect you.'

Percy sighed with sadness, an expression of despair overtaking his handsome features. Hazel put a hand on his shoulder in silent support, as he took a deep breath and turned away.

His heart was heavy and he thought, _If only I could talk to her. I want to know my past and who is she, what she means to me, _why_ she means so much to me_.

The rainbow behind him began to glow. Hazel's eyes widened and she gasped, '_Percy_!'

Percy turned startled. There was a faint picture which was appearing on the rainbow, and a loud voice screamed suddenly, 'But Chiron, _he's not dead_!'

The picture and his memory burst into his mind. _That_ was Annabeth. She was talking to Chiron, who was the activities director at Camp Half-Blood, which was a Greek Camp. The reason he was having vertigo when he saw the Cyclopes and Centaurs was because of Tyson, his half-brother, and Chiron. He _remembered_.

The picture burst clearly onto the rainbow, showing a ping-pong table.

Up on Olympus, Hera was standing in front of the assembly of the gods (which met up every day because they had nothing else to do), open-mouthed. This was _not_ supposed to happen. Her control over the frail young demigod was _not_ supposed to be broken.

'I told you your plan would fail Hera,' Aphrodite said smugly, looking at her nails. 'Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase are in true love. You couldn't just _delete_ his memories of her. Don't you know? He remembered her even before this. His memories of her were going to return sometime or the other, you know.'

'Yes, I know, _how_ could I even _forget_?'

'That memory was there because of his Achilles heel,' Aphrodite said exasperatedly. 'If you had payed attention to his swim in the Styx (which I did to find out who he saw), he saw Annabeth, the love of his young life.'

She sighed a dreamy sigh, yet again. 'I really did a great job with his love life.'

Meanwhile, Athena was turning purple. 'He saw _her_ in the Styx?' she half-yelled.

'Yes, she did Athena,' Poseidon said this time. 'Can't you hear or see?'

Before Athena could retort (not that she could think of anything because of the _sea spawn's_ upstart behavior), Aphrodite ditched her nails and pointed to the image in front of them, shouting, 'Oooh! Look there, everyone!'

'Annabeth?' Percy asked in a daze. In the picture, everyone except Jason, Piper and Leo froze. There was absolutely no way that they just heard…

'Percy?' Annabeth whispered in shock, her back facing the Iris-Message.

'Annabeth,' Percy said in a rather stupid manner, before sitting down hard.

Hazel appeared on the screen, looking sheepish, just as Annabeth turned.

'Um, hello,' she said. 'I'm Hazel, one of Percy's friends. You must be Annabeth, his girlfriend.'

'I am, actually,' Annabeth said, her eyes filling with tears. 'He remembers me?'

'He does,' Hazel said with a dreamy sigh. 'He's forgotten absolutely everything, except you. It is _so_ cute.'

'It is,' a Cherokee girl sighed. Beside her sat an old friend…

'Jason!' Hazel gasped, forgetting Percy for a millisecond. But her worry for her friend came back full force, and she ran to Percy's side, and held his hand to pull him up.

'Annabeth?' Percy asked in a hazy manner. 'Chiron? Is that you, Clarisse, Katie, Grover? Is that correct? Those are your names right?'

Annabeth's face fell. 'You said he knew me!' she hissed to Hazel.

'He knows you alright, but I think his memory might be coming back! He didn't remember anything except you!' Hazel hissed back.

'It's – it's all coming back to me,' Percy said, clutching his temples. 'I remember _everything_.'

'You – you do?' asked Jason, looking crestfallen. 'Didn't you wake up just a few days ago?'

'Yeah, I did,' Percy said, wincing as he got up. 'At least I had Annabeth to keep me sane, what with one thing or another –'

'You _did_ remember me?' Annabeth asked, her eyes shimmering with tears again.

'Of course, Wise Girl,' Percy said, reaching out to the IM. 'I'd never forget you.'

The Cherokee started cooing.

'Um, do I know you three?' Percy asked, looking at the three people who he had not met.

'I'm Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, and these are my friend, Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus, and my girlfriend, Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite,' Jason introduced. Piper smiled at Percy and gave him a shy wave, while Leo grinned at him at flashed him a peace sign.

'Sup!' he said with a mischievous smile. 'Leo Valdez, head councilor of Hephaestus, at your service. I'd shake your hand, but…' he shrugged. 'I'm renderered – um, _rendered_, slightly at a loss.'

'Nice to meet all three of you,' Percy gave a tentative smile while Piper hissed, '_Leo_!' and smacked him on the head.

'Owe, Beauty Queen!' Leo said, rubbing the spot Piper hit him at.

'Anyway,' Piper smiled at Percy. 'I'm the head councilor at Aphrodite.'

'Hi,' Percy smiled back.

'Wait,' Hazel suddenly gasped. 'You three didn't happen to fight a Cyclopes by the name of Ma Gasket, did you?'

'Yeah, we did, actually,' Piper said, confused. Before Hazel could say anything back, the other campers cut in.

'Percy!' was a common shout between them.

'Percy!' Thalia battled out of the crowd and looked ready to jump right through the IM to hug him. 'How _are_ you?

'I'm good, Thals, I'm perfectly okay,' Percy replied. But meeting Thalia had jarred something in his memory.

'Nico di Angelo is dead tomorrow,' Percy declared, an expression that clearly betrayed his anger on his face.

'Why? What did he do?' Annabeth asked in concern.

'The little brat was_ at Camp Jupiter_ when I reached and pretended he didn't know me!' Percy fumed. Annabeth's face darkened and she growled, 'Get in line.'

Just at that moment, Nico walked coolly into the room on Annabeth's side, whistling softly to himself.

'_Nico di Angelo_,' Annabeth growled. '_Why_, exactly, did you abstain from telling me that you knew where Percy was?'

Nico suddenly looked extremely nervous and he stuttered, 'What do you mean?'

'I mean _this_,' Annabeth said menacingly before stepping aside to allow Nico to look at the IM. Nico paled considerably when he saw Percy's livid face and Hazel's confused one.

'Nico?' Hazel asked, her eyes widening. 'What – I mean – how are – what are you _doing_ there?'

'I was, um, visiting Camp?' Nico stated, but it came out more like a question.

'How dare you,' Annabeth breathed out, fury shimmering in her eyes. She turned to slowly face Nico, who looked around like a terrified puppy. Annabeth was not asking any questions. She was stating every word, anger lacing every syllable that fell from her lips.

'You saw exactly how Camp had become in his absence. You knew that without their leader, the Camp's heart broke a little more. You knew exactly how hard it had become for people to think that the Hero of Olympus, Percy Jackson himself was dead.'

Annabeth's voice did not go above a whisper, but it was almost deadly quiet. Everyone who had been there in the Camp while Percy was felt a vindictive sense of pleasure. They all thought it served Nico right for not informing them of Percy's wellbeing and whereabouts.

'Guys, I had to do it,' Nico said pleadingly. 'When the gods found out that I knew about Camp Jupiter, they forced me to swear on the Styx that I couldn't tell either side of the other's existence!'

'Okay, fine, but couldn't you tell us that you knew where Percy was and that he was safe?' Annabeth asked, calming down slightly.

'If I did that, you'd ask me how I knew, where he was, etcetera, etcetera,' Nico replied. 'You think I didn't think this through? You think I don't care about you, Percy and the Camp?'

Nico was becoming close to tears. He thought highly about everyone at Camp, and it hurt him to think that they thought so little of him.

'No, Nico,' Annabeth whispered, feeling guilty. 'I was just worried, and –'

'No, I get it, Annabeth,' Nico said, collecting himself. 'I just – I understand, but – forget it.'

Annabeth was going to argue, but thought better about it. 'Okay,' she sighed.

'Hello?' Percy said sarcastically after a minute. 'Anyone there?'

'Shut up, Percy,' Annabeth rolled her eyes. She may have rolled her eyes, but she couldn't contain the smile that spread across her face at the words that were so far into her memory, they started feeling like a dream.

'Whatever, Annabeth,' Percy smirked.

'Okay, so, where are you?' Annabeth jumped to the question she was most eager to ask.

'I don't know – _remember_ – where I am, exactly,' Percy said, face scrunched up. He turned to look at Hazel to see if she knew, but she'd been just staring at the Message like it was from outer space.

'Hazel?' Percy asked, breaking Hazel out of her reverie.

'Oh, I'm sorry,' Hazel shook her head. 'What did you ask, Percy?'

'Do you remember where we are?' Percy repeated.

'Uh, yeah. No. Yeah. We're somewhere near Mendocino,' Hazel nodded.

'Yeah,' Percy turned back toward the Message.

'Okay, I'm coming,' Annabeth said, walking toward the door.

'I wouldn't do that, daughter of Athena,' said a voice next to Percy.

'Hera?' Annabeth asked incredulously as Percy almost fell down in his haste to get away from the unknown voice.

'Juno?' Jason asked. 'What are you doing there?

'I'm here to take care of a few things,' Hera/Juno said in a crisp voice. 'And just for the record, I'm here as Hera.'

'I don't care,' Annabeth snarled, walking menacingly toward the Message. 'I hate you either way.'

'I would mind my manners if I were you, daughter of Athena,' Hera said sharply. 'At any rate, you cannot be allowed to remember this call. I have worked a lot to get this straight, and I am not going to let it get ruined by _love_.'

Hera spat out the word like it was poison on her tongue. 'You will forget anything ever happened. You can't remember, because I will not allow it.'

'Why not, Hera?' Annabeth asked, on the verge of tears. 'Why did you have to do this? Why can't I at least remember that he's alive? That he's safe?'

'It is impossible for everyone to survive if you remember,' Hera said. 'I'm sorry, but your moment of peace is over. I will reverse time and make sure that this call never happened. And yes, I can do that, as I am the daughter of Kronos.'

Hera started chanting before anyone could get a word in edgewise. Everyone who was a part of the conversation or overheard it started losing their memories.

Just as he lost all recollection of the conversation ever happening and remembering everyone, Percy whispered, 'I love you, Annabeth.'

'I love you too, Percy,' Annabeth whispered back.

All memories were wiped away, just as the Iris Message. Time reversed itself. Only two people had even a feeling that the conversation even took place. Percy Jackson remembered only Annabeth Chase professing her love for him, and Annabeth Chase could only recall Percy telling her "I love you". And whatever regrets they might have had, were all wiped away from three little words spoken by two teenagers.

**Um, yeah, that didn't turn out exactly how I thought it would, but whatever.**

**Yours truly,**

**Stella**


End file.
